National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands

The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) was a national socialist political party in the Netherlands that was active from 1931 to 1945. The party was founded in Utrecht by Anton Mussert and Cornelis van Geelkerken, and it was initially inspired by Italian fascism; it was not until 1936 that, following the example of Hitler's Nazi Party, it adopted anti-Semitism as an ideology, and it had Jewish members before then. In the provincial elections of 1935, the party won two seats in the Senate due to the hardships faced during the Great Depression, and Mussert united the various fascist movements in the country. However, Meinoud Rost van Tonningen challenged Mussert's leadership, with Rost van Tonningen having Nazi support. This led to a strong anti-fascist reaction of the political parties, trade unions, and churches, and the party lost some of its support. During World War II, the NSB advocated strict neutrality for the Netherlands out of support for Nazi Germany, and, following the Battle of the Netherlands, Mussert called on the Dutch people to embrace the German occupation and renounce the monarchy. By 1941, the NSB was the only legal party in the German-occupied Netherlands, and it grew to have 100,000 members. Every new mayor appointed by the German occupation government was an NSB member, but Mussert's desire to rule an independent Netherlands was dashed due to internal rivalries within the NSB. On 5 September 1944, the NSB leadership fled to Germany as the Allies liberated the Low Countries, and the party's organization fell apart. After the Germans surrendered on 6 May 1945, the NSB was outlawed, and Mussert was executed.